""With the Aug. 15 deadline for writing a new constitution bearing down, a cadre of powerful, mostly secular Shiite politicians is pushing for the creation of an autonomous region in the oil-rich south of Iraq, posing a direct challenge to the nation's central authority."

I'm all for it. What is good for the Kurds should be good for the people of Basra. Fifty years of drinking contaminated water is more than enough for the region that sits on half of Iraq's oil. Previous governments and the current government have been guilty of ignoring the people of Basra.

Today I was watching the Inspector General in the Ministry of public Services and he said the ministry allocated only 2% of its budget to Basra. Basra is the second largest city in Iraq. This is outrageous. Even if they allocate the money equally among the provinces, Basra will have 5% of the budget. Now we know they must steal 50% of the money before allocation. This still going to leave Basra with 2.5% of the budget. How did it end up with 2% is beyond me."
Abbas Kadhim